The Purpose of Illness

But if we are sons, we are heirs also:
heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided, however, we suffer
with Him that we may also be glorified with Him. (Rom. 8:17)

Our Saviour and the God-bearing
Fathers teach that our only concern in this life should be the salvation of our
souls. Bishop Ignatius says: "Earthly life — this brief period — is given
to man by the mercy of the Creator in order that man may use it for his
salvation, that is, for the restoration of himself from death to life"
(The Arena). Therefore, we must "look upon everything in this world as
upon a fleeting shadow and cling with our heart to nothing of it...for we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the
things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal" (St. John of Kronstadt, Spiritual Counsels). For Orthodox
Christians, the center of our life is not here, but there, in the eternal
world.

How long we live, what disease or
illness accompanies our death — such things are not the proper concern of
Orthodox Christians. Although we sing "many years" for one another at
Namesdays and other celebrations, this is only because the Church in her wisdom
knows that we indeed need "many years" to repent of our sins and be
converted, not because a long life has any value in itself. God is not
interested in how old we are when we come before His Judgment, but whether we
have repented; He is not concerned about whether we died of a heart attack or
cancer, but whether our soul is in a state of health.

Therefore, "we should not dread
any human ill, save sin alone; neither poverty, nor disease, nor insult, nor
malicious treatment, nor humiliation, nor death" (St. John Chrysostom, On
the Statues), for these "ills" are only words; they have no reality
for those who are living for the Kingdom of Heaven. The only real
"calamity" in this life is offending God. If we have this basic
understanding of the purpose of life, then the spiritual meaning of bodily
infirmity can be opened for us.

In the preceding chapter we learned
how the all-wise God allowed suffering to enter the world in order to show us
that we are but creatures. It is a lesson still not learned by the race of Adam
which, in its pride, ever seeks to be like "gods": for every sin is a
renewal of the sin of the first-created ones, a willful turning away from God
towards self. In this way we set ourselves in the place of God, actually
worshipping self instead of the Creator. In this way the suffering of illness
serves the same purpose today as it did in the beginning: for this reason it is
a sign of God's mercy and love. As the Holy Fathers say to those who are ill:
"God has not forgotten you; He cares for you" (Sts. Barsanuphius and
John, Philokal' ia).

Yet, it is difficult to see how
sickness can be a sign of God's care for us — unless, that is, we understand
the relationship that exists between body and soul. Elder Ambrose of Optina
Monastery spoke of this in a letter to the mother of a very sick child:

"We should not forget that in our
age of 'sophistication' even little children are spiritually harmed by what
they see and hear. As a result, purification is required, and this is only
accomplished through bodily suffering... You must understand that Paradisal
bliss is granted to no one without suffering."

St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain
explained that since man is dual, made up of body and soul, "there is an
interaction between the soul and the body" (Counsels), each one acting on
the other and actually communicating with the other. "When the soul is
diseased we usually feel no pain," St. John Chrysostom says. "But if
the body suffers only a little, we make every effort to be free of the illness
and its pain. Therefore, God corrects the body for the sins of the soul, so
that by chastising the body, the soul might also receive some healing... Christ
did this with the Paralytic when He said: Behold, thou art made whole; sin no
more, lest a worse thing come unto tbee. What do we learn from this? That the
Paralytic's disease had been produced by his sins" (Homily 38, On the
Qospel of St. John).

On one occasion a woman was brought to
St. Seraphim of Sarov. She was badly crippled and could not walk because her
knees were bent up to her chest. "She told the Elder that she had been
born in the Orthodox Church but, after marrying a dissenter, had abandoned
Orthodoxy and, for her infidelity, God had suddenly punished her... She could
not move a hand or foot. St. Seraphim asked the sick woman whether she now
believed in her Mother, our Holy Orthodox Church. On receiving a reply in the
affirmative, he told her to make the sign of the Cross in the proper way. She
said that she could not even lift a hand. But when the Saint prayed and
anointed her hands and breast with oil from the icon-lamp, her malady left her
instantly." Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing
come unto thee!

This connection between body and soul,
sin and sickness, is clear: pain tells us that something has gone wrong with
the soul, that not only is the body diseased, but the soul as well. And this is
precisely how the soul communicates its ills to the body, awakening a man to
self-knowledge and a wish to turn to God. We see this over and over in the
lives of the saints, for illness also teaches that our "true self, that
which is principally man, is not the visible body but the invisible soul, the
'inner man'" (St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain, Christian Morality).

But does this mean that the man who
enjoys continual good health is in "good shape" spiritually? Not at
all, for suffering takes many forms, whether in the body or in the mind and
soul. How many in excellent health lament that life is not "worth the
living"? St. John Chrysostom describes this kind of suffering:

"Some think that to enjoy good
health is a source of pleasure. But it is not so. For many who have good health
have a thousand times wished themselves dead, not being able to bear the
insults inflicted upon them... For although we were to become kings and live
royally, we should find ourselves compassed about with many troubles and
sadnesses... By necessity kings have as many sadnesses as there are waves on
the ocean. So, if monarchy is unable to make a life free from grief, then what
else could possibly achieve this? Nothing, indeed, in this life" (Homily 18, On the Statues).

Protestants often "claim"
health in the "Name of Christ." They regard health as something to
which the Christian is naturally entitled. From their point of view, illness
betrays a lack of faith. This is the exact opposite of the Orthodox teaching as
illustrated by the life of the Righteous Job in the Old Testament. St. John
Chrysostom says that the saints serve God not because they expect any kind of
reward, either spiritual or material, but simply because they love Him:
"for the saints know that the greatest reward of all is to be able to love
and serve God." Thus, "God, wishing to show that it was not for
reward that His saints serve Him, stripped Job of all his wealth, gave him over
to poverty, and permitted him to fall into terrible diseases." And Job, who
was not living for any reward in this life, still remained faithful to God
(Homily I, On the Statues).

Just as healthy people are not without
sin, so too, God sometimes allows truly righteous ones to suffer, "as a
model for the weak" (St. Basil the Great, The Long Rules). For, as St.
John Cassian teaches, "a man is more thoroughly instructed and formed by
the example of another" (Institutes).

This we see in the Scriptural case of
Lazarus. "Although he suffered from painful wounds, he never once murmured
against the Rich Man nor made any request of him... As a result, he found rest
in the Bosom of Abraham, as one who had accepted humbly the misfortunes of
life" (St. Basil the Great, The Long Rules).

The Church Fathers also teach that
illness is a way by which Christians may imitate the suffering of the martyrs.
Thus, in the lives of very many saints, intense bodily suffering was visited
upon them at the end, so that by their righteous suffering they might attain to
physical martyrdom. A good example of this may be found in the life of that
great champion of Orthodoxy, St. Mark of Ephesus:

"He was sick fourteen days, and
the disease itself, as he himself said, had upon him the same effect as those
iron instruments of torture applied by executioners to the holy martyrs, and
which as it were girdled his ribs and internal organs, pressed upon them and
remained attached in such a state and caused absolutely unbearable pain; so
that it happened that what men could not do with his sacred martyr's body was
fulfilled by disease, according to the unutterable judgment of Providence, in
order that this Confessor of Truth and Martyr and Conqueror of all possible
sufferings and Victor should appear before God after going through every
misery, and that even to his last breath, as gold tried in the furnace, and in
order that thanks to this he might receive yet greater honor and rewards
eternally from the Just Judge" (The Orthodox Word, vol. 3, no. 3).

You who believe when you are well, see to it that you do not fall
away from God
in the time of misfortune.

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